Earth Walker
June 2nd, 2001, 12:35 AM
......finally gives up on Spam/spam battle.
NEW YORK -- Stick a fork in it, Spam's squabble with cyber-
space is done.
Hormel Foods Corp., the maker of the legendary spiced lunch
meat made of pork shoulders and ham and creator of the Spam-
burger Hamburger, says it can live with Spam's double meaning
as junk electronic mail.
In a message posted on the official Spam Web site:
www.spam.com/ci/ci-in.htm Hormel says it has no qualms with
the alternate meaning as long as one writes SPAM, the meat,
in all capital letters, and spam, the unsolicited e-mail, in lower
case.
While the policy is not new -- a Hormel spokeswoman said it
was put up more than a year ago -- the posting got extra
attention following an anti-junkmail conference called SpamCon
held earlier this month in San Francisco.
There was a time when Hormel was not so open to alternate
meanings of Spam for fear they would injure the brand name.
At one point, the company challenged Jim Henson Productions
for the creation of a muppet named Spa'am, the high priest of
wild boars that worships Miss Piggy, the porcine muppet diva.
A court threw out the claim in a 1996 ruling.
And in 1997, the company took on a junk e-mail entrepreneur
named Sanford "Spamford" Wallace, who posed with cans of
Spam to promote his business.
Today, the story is different.
"We do not object to use of this slang term," the Spam Web
site states, "although we do object to the use of our product
image in association with that term."
Julie Craven, Hormel's director of public relations, said the
decision was made to accept the e-mail meaning of spam after
the term's popularity mushroomed.
"It certainly was at a point where it was becoming so much out
there, and so much a part of popular culture," she said.
Spam, the meat, is stuck in distinctive tins and shipped around
the world and is apparently very popular in Hawaii, according to
the Spam Web site.
--Reuters
To believe what you see is to be deceived.
**********************************
Reject the illusions of social harmony.
NEW YORK -- Stick a fork in it, Spam's squabble with cyber-
space is done.
Hormel Foods Corp., the maker of the legendary spiced lunch
meat made of pork shoulders and ham and creator of the Spam-
burger Hamburger, says it can live with Spam's double meaning
as junk electronic mail.
In a message posted on the official Spam Web site:
www.spam.com/ci/ci-in.htm Hormel says it has no qualms with
the alternate meaning as long as one writes SPAM, the meat,
in all capital letters, and spam, the unsolicited e-mail, in lower
case.
While the policy is not new -- a Hormel spokeswoman said it
was put up more than a year ago -- the posting got extra
attention following an anti-junkmail conference called SpamCon
held earlier this month in San Francisco.
There was a time when Hormel was not so open to alternate
meanings of Spam for fear they would injure the brand name.
At one point, the company challenged Jim Henson Productions
for the creation of a muppet named Spa'am, the high priest of
wild boars that worships Miss Piggy, the porcine muppet diva.
A court threw out the claim in a 1996 ruling.
And in 1997, the company took on a junk e-mail entrepreneur
named Sanford "Spamford" Wallace, who posed with cans of
Spam to promote his business.
Today, the story is different.
"We do not object to use of this slang term," the Spam Web
site states, "although we do object to the use of our product
image in association with that term."
Julie Craven, Hormel's director of public relations, said the
decision was made to accept the e-mail meaning of spam after
the term's popularity mushroomed.
"It certainly was at a point where it was becoming so much out
there, and so much a part of popular culture," she said.
Spam, the meat, is stuck in distinctive tins and shipped around
the world and is apparently very popular in Hawaii, according to
the Spam Web site.
--Reuters
To believe what you see is to be deceived.
**********************************
Reject the illusions of social harmony.